CHAVEZ, RUBIO: Potentially dangerous fight for legend's son. / Photo: CHRIS FARINA, Top Rank
Chavez -350; Rubio +280
Over 11.5 +120; under 11.5 -120
There are sceptics to be sure, but Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has shown sufficient improvement to get respect from within the boxing industry. I don’t think anyone will ever call him the best middleweight in the world, but Chavez can fight, and he is the clear favourite over Marco Antonio Rubio in Saturday night’s all-Mexico middleweight championship bout on HBO.
On paper, this is Chavez’s stiffest test. Rubio is on a run of six consecutive stoppage wins, the most dramatic of which was his seventh-round victory over David Lemieux when he survived an early onslaught and came back to hammer an exhausted and discouraged opponent.
PEREZ: winning the WBO North American belt was a start. / Photo: Golden Boy Promotions
His opponent, Adrien Broner, is the budding superstar, an explosive puncher with 12 opponents stopped in his last 13 bouts, but Eloy Perez is in a sense a throwback in that he has fought his way to the top the hard way, taking on any fights that were offered. Now Perez has the backing of Golden Boy Promotions although he is still something of an unknown quantity to all but the hard-core fans.
Perez knows he is a massive underdog but seems genuinely confident that he will upset the odds in the Feb. 25 junior lightweight fight on HBO.
SALIDO (left) outlasted Lopez / Photo: CHRIS FARINA, Top Rank
Upsets were the norm in 2011 but often only seemed shocking because the sportsbooks now offer such wide odds on boxers who are generally expected to win.
Odds of -1000 (10-1 on) once indicated a prohibitive favourite. Now, however, we are seeing boxers listed at -1400, -1800 and higher in fights that have a competitive look to them (such as Lamont Peterson on home ground in DC against Amir Khan).
FROCH, WARD: The long journey ends tonight. / Photo: TOM CASINO, Showtime
Ward -220; Froch +180
Over 11.5 -200; under 11.5 +160
The long, hard road comes to an end for 168-pound champions Andre Ward and Carl Froch tonight in Atlantic City, two years after starting their journey in the Showtime network’s innovative Super Six tournament.
Ward is the betting favourite but Froch, who looked in fantastic condition at Friday’s weigh-in, exudes confidence and will have his backers.
Viloria +140; Segura -180
Over 11.5 +140; under 11.5 -160
The little fighters just don’t get the respect they deserve. For instance there’s a tremendous fight in Manila today between Brian Viloria, the Hawaiian-born fighter of Filipino ancestry, and Mexico’s Giovani Segura but it has attracted little attention and most sportsbooks aren’t offering odds.
I just don’t understand this. The fight is a battle of champions: Viloria defending his flyweight title while Segura, a champion at junior flyweight, moves up four pounds in weight.
REVENGE OR REDEMPTION? Cotto sombre, Margarito smiling. / Photo: CHRIS FARINA, Top Rank
Cotto -165; Margarito +135
Over 10.5 -160; under 10.5 +140
Revenge and redemption are the themes when Miguel Cotto defends his junior middleweight title against Antonio Margarito at a sold-out Madison Square Garden tonight (HBO PPV).
Cotto has no doubt that Margarito used loaded handwraps to win their first fight in Las Vegas three years ago. Margarito denies this, of course, but a photo produced by Cotto showing a tear in Margarito’s wraps after the fight would appear to be damning evidence. This time, Cotto promises payback. Margarito says that he will hit Cotto so hard that Cotto will feel as if there ishardened plaster inside Margarito’s gloves.
CHAVEZ, MANFREDO: It should be fun. / Photo: Chris Farina, Top Rank
Chavez -550; Manfredo +350
Over 10.5 -185; under 10.5 +155
Probably no one outside his own family believes that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is the best middleweight in the world even though he is the WBC champion, but the son of perhaps Mexico’s greatest fighter always provides good entertainment. So, with that in mind, I’m looking forward to Chavez’s title defence against Peter Manfredo Jr. in Houston, TX on Saturday night (HBO Boxing After Dark).
This bout is what the boxing fraternity calls a “fun fight” although I sometimes wonder if it’s as much fun for the contestants as for the spectators — observers don’t have to take the punches.
PACQUIAO 143; MARQUEZ 142: Definitive ending this time? / Photo: Chris Farina, Top Rank
Pacquiao -800; Marquez +500
Over 9.5 -160; under 9.5 +140
The boxing world hopes for a sense of finality, a definitive conclusion, when welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao meets his bitterest rival, Juan Manuel, Marquez, on PPV from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Twice these proud warriors of the ring have fought down to the wire in compelling 12-round fights. Pacquiao has scored four knockdowns over Marquez, but the durable and accomplished Mexican veteran scored with such efficiency that an argument can be made that he was twice unlucky against Pacquiao — a draw and a heart-breaking one-point defeat.
JOHNSON, BUTE: They've sparred together, now it's for real.
Bute -950; Johnson +500
Over 9.5 -275; under 9.5 +220
It’s the turn of Lucian Bute to take on ageless warrior Glen Johnson, and the Montreal-based Romanian is ready for 12 rounds of boxing in Quebec on Saturday night. After all, who can stop the very tough, always superbly conditioned veteran from Miami by way of Jamaica?
In the Bute camp the plan is to win every minute of every round, although a stoppage would be a tremendous achievement.
ANGULO: Superior chin could be the key in give-and-take fight.
Angulo -280; Kirkland +220
Over 6.5 +110; under 6.5 -120
Some fights have “guaranteed action” written all over them, and one such contest tops the bill on HBO’s Boxing After Dark on Saturday night when Mexico’s Alfredo Angulo meets James Kirkland, from Austin, TX, in a clash of junior middleweight crowd-pleasers.
The only thing I am sure about is that the fight is very unlikely to go the scheduled 12 rounds. The other man in the ring never has to look very far to find Angulo or Kirkland: These are in-your-face fighters.
DONAIRE towers over Narvaez. / Photo: SUMIO YAMADA
Donaire -1000; Narvaez +600
Over 8.5 +155; under 8.5 -185
It’s good big man against good small man on HBO on Saturday when Nonito Donaire, the fast and powerful Filipino Flash, defends his bantamweight title against Omar Narvaez, the veteran from Argentina who moves up in weight from the 115-pound division.
Donaire is, predictably, a massive betting favourite. He is the younger man, taller, bigger, far more explosive — and probably just as quick as Narvaez.
HOPKINS, DAWSON: Another age-defying performance? / Photo: Hoganphotos / GBP
Hopkins +110; Dawson -125
Over 11.5 -220; under 11.5 +185
Bernard Hopkins shows no sign of slowing down at 46. How long, though, can he keep defying age? That, once more, is the question everyone asks as the seemingly ageless wonder heads into his light-heavyweight title defence against Chad Dawson at the Staples Center, Los Angeles on Saturday (HBO PPV).
Dawson, 29, was once thought of as having a style that was “wrong” for Hopkins, being a rangy, fast southpaw. This perception has changed. Hopkins looked much younger than his age in the two fights with Jean Pascal while Dawson has now given two lacklustre performances in a row, losing the title to Pascal and then labouring to a points win over Adrian Diaconu.
